She’ll appear in the fifth season of Baghch-e Simsim, Afghanistan’s version of Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop says Zari is being introduced to focus on girls’ empowerment in Afghanistan, where 85 percent of women have no formal education and the literacy rate for women is 24 percent, one of the lowest in the world.

In addition to interacting with children on the show, she will interview Afghan professionals....